INDIANA, USA — Three Indiana Department of Child Services employees were accused of neglecting their constitutional duty to care for a child who was tortured to death by his parents in October 2021.
Judah Morgan, 4, was found dead on a floor months after a court ordered he be sent there to live full time for the first time in his life, even as his foster family, who had taken care of him since birth, adamantly claimed they tried to alert DCS to ongoing abuse Judah suffered before his death and were ignored.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Indiana and seeks damages for the actions of three specific Indiana Department of Child Services workers for their “reckless” and “deliberate indifference and intentional disregard of their duties” Judah’s loved ones claim caused his death.
It leveled heavy accusations against three DCS employees who were assigned to, or had some responsibility for, Judah’s case prior to his torture-murder at the hands of his parents in October 2021.
The three workers — Michele Stowers, Michelle Goebel and Jean Dressen — were all accused in the suit of ignoring Judah’s case prior to his death, even as his biological parents faced substantial claims of child and drug abuse.
Jean Dressen was a family case manager employed by DCS at the time of Judah’s death. Dressen lived in LaPorte County, less than 1,500 feet from where Judah was beaten, tortured and murdered in 2021, the suit claimed.
Michele Stowers was a family case manager supervisor and lived in LaPorte County. Michelle Goebel was the director of the LaPorte County DCS.
The lawsuit argues Judah was a child guaranteed the rights and protections "afforded to all people as stated in the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution," which says no state shall deprive any "person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”
The suit argues the three workers would have been held to those standards as employees of the state under DCS, and that their conduct failed to live up to those standards.
Goebel supervised Dressen and Stowers, while Stowers supervised Dressen, according to the suit. The lawsuit took specific aim at the negligent conduct of Dressen, which it argued was at the direction of Goebel and Stowers, or at least with their knowledge and consent.
It also accused Goebel and Stowers of knowing about Dressen’s misconduct in regards to her handling of Judah’s case, and turning a blind eye to it in a way that contributed to the toddler’s death.
“Their actions ‘emboldened and encouraged’ Alan Morgan and Mary Yoder to neglect, torture, and abuse Judah Morgan to death in 2021,” the suit alleged.
Accusations of neglect, incompetence
The lawsuit further outlined how the “negligence” of the DCS employees tasked with handling Judah’s case from birth eventually contributed to the end of his short life.
Judah was a Child in Needs of Services, and therefore a ward of DCS, from June 17, 2017 to his death in October 2021, the suit claimed.
It outlined how Judah was born with drugs in his system. At the time of his birth, the suit alleged his biological parents, Mary Yoder and Alan Morgan, already had substantiated allegations of neglect and abuse with regard to Judah Morgan’s older brother.
Even at the time of Judah’s birth, there was an open CHINS proceeding against Mary Yoder and Alan Morgan involving Judah’s older brother which centered on abuse allegations.
DCS took Judah directly into custody at the hospital so that he did not go home with Alan Morgan and Mary Yoder, according to the lawsuit.
From the hospital, DCS first placed Judah in a kinship placement, then foster care at four months of age with relative placement with his second cousin, Jenna Hullett.
DCS was allegedly aware of Judah’s biological parents’ “significant drug and mental health issues”. For example, they were aware that Alan Morgan was previously charged with domestic violence, battery and strangulation in the presence of a child.
This charge against Morgan was dismissed in 2014, after he “successfully” completed a “batterer’s program”, the suit alleged but did not identify which program that was.
“Strangulation in domestic violence is a huge red flag and is known to be a predictor of future domestic homicides. Despite this red flag, DCS never sought or obtained a psychological assessment of Alan Morgan at any time in the CHINS case,” the suit accused.
DCS also allegedly knew Alan Morgan was a “hot head” with abuse and neglect charges, but never sought a psychological assessment prior to closing his CHINS case and entrusting Judah Morgan to the care of Alan Morgan and Mary Yoder in April 2021.
Yoder, who recently pleaded guilty in relation to her son’s death, was subject to “extreme verbal, emotional, and physical abuse” from Morgan throughout their relationship.
The DCS workers named in the lawsuit allegedly “turned a blind eye” to that ongoing abuse, according to the suit.
The three DCS workers were also accused of failing to obtain safe permanency for Judah apart from his parents. Most notably, the suit claimed, by “dropping the ball in 2020” after a failed trial home visit involving Judah’s older brother.
“After the defendant’s negligent failure to obtain safe permanency for [Judah Morgan] the defendant’s then made the callous and deliberately indifferent decision to force [Judah’s] case to a close by negligently, willfully, wantonly, recklessly, deliberately indifferently and in some cases intentionally, cutting corners to place [Judah] in a home with drug-using parents,” the suit accused.
They also accused the three DCS workers of increasing Judah’s risk for abuse while in the custody of his biological parents by performing “sham” investigations and downplaying claims and concerns by relatives of abuse.
Hullett told 13News back in 2021 she tried repeatedly to alert DCS officials to ongoing abuse she believed Judah endured inside the home, but was ignored.
The suit claims not only did they ignore Hullett’s many abuse claims, but they “intentionally omitted information from reports” and also did not perform court-ordered drug tests for Judah Morgan’s parents in an effort to close Judah’s case.
The DCS workers were also accused of increasing danger to Judah Morgan by “enraging Alan Morgan and Mary Yoder towards Jenna Hullett, Judah’s relative kind placement, and increased hostility on the part of Judah’s biological parents towards Hullett when it came to potty training.
The workers also allegedly failed to order an assessment bond between Judah and his biological parents, which the suit alleged had been court ordered.
They allegedly did not inform CASA (court appointed special advocates) in advance of the trial home visit that placed Judah out of Hullett’s care and into his biological parents’ care for the first time in his life.
The trio was also accused of setting standards for Judah’s parents, lowering them when those standards were not met, and failing to perform court ordered drug tests.
“For the six month period Judah was in his biological parents’ home, he was beaten, tortured, abused and neglected by his parents,” the suit claimed.
That six-month period, the suit accused, overlapped the period from April 7, 2021 until June 27, 2021 when the DCS workers had a legal duty to protect Judah.
Jenna Hullett requested that DCS pay general damages, including emotional distress, for an amount that will be decided on at a later time.
The three DCS workers are requested to also pay special damages to the plaintiff.
This most recent federal suit comes a week after a Hendricks County judge found Indiana DCS in civil contempt of court for failing to produce documents related to Judah Morgan’s case file.